


Astrography

by theMiragePrismatic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 09:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17342633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theMiragePrismatic/pseuds/theMiragePrismatic
Summary: She charted a path through the stars her friend, her classmate was lost in.





	Astrography

**Author's Note:**

> Haven't watched S7 or S8 and I wrote this ages ago. After some time away, I realize I do like it. Formatting adjustments have been made.
> 
> INACA - InterNational Aeronatics and Star Agency  
> UNSF - United Nations Stellar Fleet

 The day of the memorial service is marked by an empty desert and star-scattered skies.

The ground team of the Kereberos Mission and their families wear not black but clothing patterns with tye-dyes of galaxies on them at the memorial. There are no bodies to bury so they assemble as dusk falls away from city lights under the stars. 

She was one of the colleagues. Classmates. Teammates.

Vanna stares up at the sky wondering what went wrong. She had charted it perfectly. What - Keith shakes under her touch, where her hand rests on his shoulder, gripping it, grounding him. He's given into the urge to cry but is only half leaning into her, hiding his tears in her jacket. She had been happy to 'teach him astrography and astronavigation' - while showing him the Kereberos flight pattern. 

The service is nice. Keith is prepared to flee the scene and Iverson's platitudes when the Holts approach. Katalina - Katie - and Colleen - Holt approach. They go to dinner together - them and the Shiroganes and try to remember the good times.

"They didn't tell us." Colleen says, eyes haunted.

"Wha - "

"They didn't tell us first. We found out from the news."

Keith's mouth takes a mulish set; Vanna sighs internally. Well, if Shiro wasn't here to fight for Keith, someone was going to have to do it for him. It's not like anyone else bothered to open their minds to their fellow humans, more concerned with glory and the stars. But then again, she didn't care much about them either. Well, only Keith mattered now. 

 

 

* * *

 "I want funeral leave for Keith."

The registration officer looks surprised; Keith looks sullen behind her. 

"I'm sorry - "

"Funeral leave." she demands. Keith is an orphan, a ward of the state and damnit if Shiro wasn't here to look after this poor lost bird she would. "Grief leave. Keith was under the care of Takashi Shirogane. Since this establishment had failed to see that - despite having mental experts on staff - I am demanding grief leave for him, for Keith to be put under my care with the benefits that entails! I will take charge of Keith.

The officer looks as annoyed as she is. She allows him to take a breath and a cup of tea.  "Alright," he says and gestures to them both to sit. "I understand that there have been some 'disciplinary issues'. I presume you wish to contest that?"

"Yes."

=^.^=

"Could you look after Katie for me?"

It wasn't odd for Colleen Holt to meet her; Colleen had not on the same project; she was a robotics expert but no one would give them an odd glance. Vanna frowned.

"What do you mean?"

 "Katie is going to enroll in the Garrison. But not as herself,"

If not for Keith or Katie, Vanna would have been perfectly happy going back her to observatory as the lone Astrographer in the modern day version of a tower. Instead-  even though UNSF tries to poach her to their orbital stardromes or INACA to other lucrative and important posts, Vanna goes back to Galaxy Garrison, avoids the older teachers and teaches astrography and is amazed when Pidge Gunderson appears and no one thinks its weird, he looks like Matt. Also - her mom is super chill to be okay with her daughter infiltrating a shady establishment. Vanna hums and thoughtfully finds a good higher-up to complain to on the back channels.

Its not really complaining so much as casual conversation. Mentioning things...implying without asking. She watches the sky, she talks to  Keith, she waits.

Keith and Katie don't have much contact but Vanna often relays the other's thoughts. Keith despite his funeral leave is in danger of just fighting everyone who looks at him sideways so she gives him a job surveying in the middle of nowhere. It helpful to her, he's doing something constructive and he has space to breathe and unwind. She visits of course, sends mail, helps Keith make a striking dummy he can hit, cleans up the hut.

She is also entirely unsurprised when a mini-Matt Holt appears and aside from some squinting no one else notices. Aside from genius and looks, Pidge Gunderson has nothing in common with Matthew Holt - after everyone has at least seven dopplegangers in the world.

She makes sure neither kid of them falls over from grief and insulates herself from her own feelings, her own past and memories. Over -reflection turns fond memories to bitter drafts after all.

=^.^=

 

People could sleep through life. Get up, go through the motions but never truly thrive. Never feel a racing heart, exhilaration, never laugh, never be reckless or daring. of course, not all people are inclined to throw themselves out of airplanes to freefall towards the planet. Some find fulfillment in academic pursuits.

Vanna wasn't interested in other people. Not anymore. She slept through the day, timing her sleep to match the rise of the moon, ate breakfast as the cadets were having dinner and went to the observatory. She watched the stars. Mapped them. Took pictures. She had to be up with the stars and not before or she would miss them.

It didn't bring her the joy it once did. She knew nothing else though and she persisted; it was the only thing keeping her alive, giving her a purpose. She'd spent years pursuing this and to just... throw it away, because of a friend or a tragedy. She'd never factored friends or where they were going into her life plans. She did everything - the big things - on her terms. Just because... just because someone had vanished into the stars, never to return didn't mean she stopped looking at them. Even if - Even if -

"Professor?"

The astrographer looked up startled; Pidge was in the doorway looking drawn up and nervous as usual.

"Oh, hello, Pidge." She liked Pidge. She was wondering how long it would take for her to notice Vanna knew about their infiltration; she certainly wasn't going to stand in their way. But she was happy to pretend to not know some things. Keith just needed to be care for, her work needed to be done and nothing was going to explore - literally or metaphorically. "Need anything?"

"Just a few replacement parts." She was trying to increase the range on it always and Vanna helped with no small amount of reluctant interest. Which reminded her today was a good day to check on Keith; she couldn't GO out there - or rather she didn't have the inclination to but he had a communicator.

Pidge knew where they were, knew her to be friend so Vanna returned to her work. aside from training cadets, the school also mapped stars. The Starfaring programs had gotten back up in earnest after most earthly concerns were mostly bettered it was 2215 after; they had human-carrying expeditions to the farreaches of -

Her brain skipped over that piece of information. She mapped the navigation. She... She charted stars. Right. the... flight... routes.

"uh... Vanna?"

She had been fiddling with random things for the last two circuits of the room. The astrographer almost jumped. "Oh. Yes. I'm just... very out of it today." she said. She had gotten breakfast had she - ah there it was. Getting cold.

Pidge helpfully passed her the forgotten cup of caffine tea, "Can I have your recent astrography readings?"

"No." Vanna said. She had tasks to complete after all. She may posted in the middle of this desert but she had to collaborate with other astrographers.

Pidge looked like she was trying to make an argument for it without giving herself away. It was pointless. Vanna had been the astrographer for the Kereberos mission, calculating the movement of the planets and asteroids, spent so many late nights walking Shiro through -

Clearly she needed more things to think about. More non-astrography stuff to read. She could download some readings... better than going to those soulless shells they had the nerve to call libraries in this area.

"The replacements are over there."

Pidge collect her things and left, sullen, leaving Vanna in the quiet lab.

Time passed. She checked her 'duty list', divided into 'professional tasks' and 'personal wishes'. She tapped her finger on the mouse, staring blankly at the screen. It was holographic. She had one tasks. 'Map path from Earth to Kereberos. Map area around Pluto. Note paths between Pluto and the other outer planets. survey Proserpina.'

Vanna frowned. Pidge had hacked her terminal. Vanna strove to be invisible but she did notice things. Maybe too much. Maybe she needed to get out of her own head.... but then the youngest Holt had been outraged at Vanna's apathy to the whole thing. Emotion was exhausting.

Vanna straightened up and clicked into the program, pulling up the old Kereberos files and began surveying the skies beyond Earth. Time passed - asteroids, close, the occasional shuttle picking up Earthly debris to be towed to Mars. The Stardrome whirling above them. The -

What in the name of all the stars.

Was no one else noticing this? What had Pidge done to her computer? 

Was that a UFO? Those were a thing of the past. Their sensors had advanced to the point they could identify the debris of careless stellar explorations past, of all the junk starcruisers left behind in past years. 

But this - wasn't a UFO - had Pidge hijacked her system for  _radio frequencies_? 

Grumbling, Vanna stood. Well, she didn't loathe going to the stardeck. though she would stay far from Pidge; no need to give her any satisfaction.

Her whole bag was packed and she was off to the roof deck. There was an official post but someone put an actual roof on it so she always up on top of the roof of the observation box.

The desert was the perfect place to watch the stars. Vanna rarely tired of the peace; up here she didn't have to dodge anyone pestering her. Couldn't they just send emails? She set up her equipment swiftly, mind half listing her next in-video game objectives as she brought out her laptop and then the telescope. She stopped. Oh. Oh this was... The one they - she - they had made for astronomy class. 

It was fitting. She set up it, stating up at the scattered stars. It didn't seem too long ago...

Nights on the roof, red-eyed over projects. Casting aside nerves in favor of pretending they had always been friendly. Shiro laughed, joked, and patted her shoulder when she had minor heart-attacks over the equipment. "There's no one else I'd pick. Besides - you'd be the woman who charted the Kereberos Mission."

Pilot failure. The lie made her sick.

Vanna shook herself out of these melancholic thoughts. Everyone else was eating that meant no colleagues to question her. She didn't like the look of the skies - or how the felt really and she wanted a look. 

She lost herself in the work and nearly jumped out of her skin when the alarms went off.

 

=^.^=

Vanna stopped her speeder at the set up site. The Galaxy Garrison could be counted on to to at least hop on things quickly. No facility of the INACA-UNSF outfit was really permitted to do otherwise.

It was a novelty being outside properly, somewhere other than the roof. She'd grabbed her go-bag nerves buzzing and her jacket. The other Garrison officials didn't question her presence.

The Kerberos Mission. She moved mechanically, walking like she owned the place and striding past people in her issued uniform. Technically she wasn't permitted in the enclosure but the techs were eager for her input - on the thing that had crashed. IT was a bloody *alien* starcruiser. Spacecraft. Starcraft. Whatever you call it, it wasn't of human make. She would know - she watched shuttles take off and circle the planet every day. It was fascinating. The enclosure or the... it was too tempting. Obviously she had to dig through the alien spacecraft for their navigation charts.

"So where's the alien?"

"It wasn't - oh!" the speaker jumped away as their colleague practically stab their elbow through their rib. Vanna stopped and lifted an unimpressed eyebrow.

That's what she was doing when Iverson arrived. "Oy! You! You..."

"Wells, sir," Vanna said, standing at the ship's computer and marveling how both alien and familiar it was. Starcharts of an heretofore unknown civilization - hm, yes. Like candy.

"Get out of there! You're not authorized - you're not even wearing a suit!"

"I'm the astrographer. These start charts - "

"Get her out of here!"

The guard got an elbow in his nose for his trouble. "I can walk myself out." she said. Iverson was gone off to oust the chief medic from the procedure for some godsforsaken reason. Starcharts. It was prudent to punch the guard in the face. So she did.

It took some banging and poking but she got what she was thought was the starcharts and strolled out. "Clayson banged his head on the console," she told someone and when asked why she didn't help she looked at them blankly. "Ah right. The hermit." the speaker muttered under  her breath. Vanna contemplate decking in her teeth but she was too busy looking for a place to continue to do her job and find out what was in that pod. She had ripped out a lot of harddrive looking things and hoped Pidge would be able to do something with it.

Speaking of... She questioned the presence of three cadets on a ridge; but then she knew Pidge could not resist being here. It was surprising seeing her flight team with her. That was... good. But anyway. Better not draw attenti - wait. If Pidge was here....

Time to head for that enclosure.

=^.^=

"No wait! You can't - you have to listen to me!"

She knew that voice. It was panicked; nothing like the calm she knew but - The tragedy of sliding doors was that she couldn't slam dramatically into the room but one of the medtechs made a nice bang when they jumped and slammed into a console.

"Astrographer Wells! This is not - you're contaminating the scene!"

"And you're violating prisoner of war protocol." she snapped. Her mission, the ship, Pidge, the lies. No longer could she be apathetic - Shiro was HERE. Iverson was reaching for the panic button. She had on her punching gloves because they were good as motorcycle glove and against the sand. She lunged and her strikes were true.

So maybe she had some bottled up rage. It was always the quiet ones, they said.

Assured they wouldn't get up, she tapped lightly over to where SHiro was holding very still unable to see properly. HIs eyes widened, almost in fear before relaxing, squinting at her. "Vanna? Is that you?"

And she smile, good and true. "Welcome home, Shiro. Let's get out of this damn place."

 Explosions sounded making them both nearly leap out of their skins. 

Fortunately it was not aliens come to abduct Shiro back to space but Keith, prepared to fight and wearing a scarf around his face. He seemed astonished to see the stunned and groaning medtechs. and her.

"Vanna - what - Shiro!"

"Keith!"

Another three people arrived. "Oh you don't - ! Wha - "

"Pidgey!" Vanna swept past a confused looking Lance and Hunk, picked up Pidge to her protests and ran. "Come on, we're fleeing the scene before they get back!"

"Holy crow, that's Shiro!" Hunk yelped. "Where you abducted? What happened? What is happening!"

"We're fleeing the scene," Keith deadpanned

"Huh!" Shiro blinked as threw himself on Keith's speeder. "You kept your, Vanna? I thought you hated those."

"No, I dislike insane piloting." she said, slanting him a glare. He chuckled nervously.

"Well, i think you're going to have to get over that!" Keith called. "Let's go!"

=^.^=

Reunions postponed, the odd group of six piled onto Keith's and Vanna's speeders and zoomed off, away from the pursuing Garrison personnel.

"Are you apart of a conspiracy?" Lance wondered. Hunk was on the back holding on for dear life.

"No." she said trying to focus on the ... desert, heart ratching higher with each passing inch. She swore she was collecting all the desert sand in her eyes.. They were right behind Keith, Shiro and Pidge and the garrison was right behind them.

"T- t -t - is that a cliff?!" Hunk pointed.

The blood didn't just drain - it dissolved from Vanna's face. "I AM NOT AN EAGLE!" She drove her speeder like a sensible person - up and down and in straight line. Maybe down hills. not CLIFFS. She knew the basics; she wasn't a pilot like Keith or Shiro. If she didn't fear ocean pressure or passed biochemistry she'd probably gone into marine biology instead, exploring the ocean of their own damn planet.

Shiro nearly dislocated his neck looking back at them panick there but Lance leaned over her, putting his hands over the handles.

"Well, I guess we are or today."

She wanted to say: Mendoza, I will tell your abuela but only after I feed you to scorpions. but the cliff was here there ground was behind them and they were plunging off the cliff right behind another speeder.

That was probably her own scream she was hearing. Or Hunk's. Her heart was somewhere in the stratosphere.

=^.^=

They didn't die but Vanna's speeder is a little worse for wear. The other three almost throw themselves off Keith's speeder to check on them.

Hunk throws up. Keith looks pale. "Are you okay? Geez, I - I didn't - "

"It's okay." Vanna waves him of. "Lance - Lance is good as you are. When he stops thinking."

"Yeah - hey what?!"

"That's how some things work." Shiro says instantly soothing his ire. "Don't think; feel."

Pidge fiddles with her glasses. "That was impressive Lance."

Lance blinks before almost swelling with pride, a pleased, genuine smile manifesting.

Vanna shakily goes for her bag; Shiro does it for her and helps Hunk wash out his mouth.

They huddle at the bottom of the cliff catching their breath; it does not appear the Garrison is inclined to follow them DOWN A CLIFF so they head to Keith's hut. Vanna had been out here a few times so it looked lived in and functional at least.

"Oh man - what was that?"

Lance and Hunk take up most of the floor space catching their breath but Shiro especially does not look good. They sleep.

Vanna does not. Or rather she gives up. She sets up her computer and the stolen alien tech and squints. Keith flops by Shiro like a guard dog, Pidge was trying to pester her before passing out, Lance and Hunk sleep like camping buddies. Vanna doesn't sleep, she tries to shield the light of the computer from disturbing the 'daywalkers' and tries to read alien tech. It's not a successful attempt.

Shiro can't sleep either. He and Keith give up. "I bet its those clothes," she says in a whisper and Keith agrees, padding off to get some.

Shiro sits next to her in the lengthening night. Her mind is not operating well enough to take in the magnitude of what she is learning from pilfered alien technology so she closes her laptop, sets it aside and wraps Shiro in a hug. He looks like he needs one. He shudders, dropping his head ti her shoulder. Its a little awkward because they've twisted to meet each other but they don't move.

"I can't... Believe you're here." Normally she would take offense to someone touching her hair - braided in long cornrows to keep it neat, the braids as wide as her finger because any smaller and she would never undo them. She was probably paler than she should be - she definitely was, she mused comparing her hand to Shiro's face. She was naturally darker than Shiro, like Lance's complexion.

But Shiro did not look good

"I should be saying that."

"Yeah." Keith returns with clothes and things. "You want to clean up?"

He does. The three of them putter around the younger cadets. Vanna muses over her's Pidge's and Keith's data while the younger boy rummages for food. Shiro winces - he has a prosthetic arm and that looks awful. A massage helps though its more of a rub; its not her field of expertise. She had the medical records but she hadn't been the medic or psychotherapist on the ground team. They don't talk about what happen. Not yet. Keith and Shiro stretch. Vanna joins them outside watching the sunrise.

She thought of sunset orange was the color of mourning but ... maybe not always. Well. Sunrise was more pink, wasn't it?

Shiro breathes in the desert air; he looks much better cleaned up and in his old clothes Keith had evidently never had the heart throw away. They're a little tight on him but Shiro seem comfortable.

"Thanks for coming you two." he says though he's puzzled how they managed it. "How... "

"We didn't know it was you." Vanna says. "I just saw something weird while I was charting and then - "

"We have something to show you."

=^.^=

The break of dawn brings more answers and less sleep. Keith provides a massive mug of coffee because Vanna sleeps during the day and now that is not an option.

Hunk, Pidge and Lance are up having pilfered Keiths' food - Vanna had laid it out anyway for such a purpose.

"What... is all this?"

Its diagrams notes. Some are from Vanna, some from Pidge; Pidge is staring looking from Keith to Vanna.

"I can't really explain it. After... after the innocent, Vanna got me funeral leave. An this... posting. Watching stars for her. Weird stuff. But I found ... an energy. So we uh... followed it." he gestured to himself, Pidge and Vanna.

"Wait, wait, wait - " Lance points at them dramatically. "This is a conspiracy!"

"It's a reverse conspiracy." Vanna says and he has to stop to think about it.

"I am so confused." says Hunk.

They share information - Keith first about strange carvings he found and Vanna had found patterns in the stars, Pidge had been listening to alien radio chatter and Lance and Hunk were just lost. Well, Hunk can build a Voltron Geiger counter and Lance can give Shiro a massage for his sore arm. Vanna insists on it

But Vanna likes the size of their make shift flight team and never underestimate the benefit of people with an outside perspective. and they have a mission - Voltron.

They mess with a pile of wires while Lance puts on his professional face and helps Shiro with his arm. If he flushes when Shiro gushes praises, everyone just smiles. After gathering as much food as Keith has and packing up the stuff, they pile onto the two speeders, same arrangements as before because Shiro and Hunk are both big. Vanna drives her own speeder, Keith promises not hurl over anymore cliffs and they're off.

The day is beautiful, the skies clear, the wind mercifully cool. Vanna pulls off her bandanna, letting the wind caress the half straight hair and corn-row braids.

Hunk's 'Voltron Geiger Counter' works like a charm and they're soon at sight of Keith's carvings.

 

"So... keith's magical, divination carvings are in the same place as the ... alien weapon thing." Lance says. "This doesn't seem... concerning. At all. no of course not."

"Shush!" 

The carvings are beautiful. "Did you take pictures?" Vanna asked and starts taking a bunch anyway.

"A few."

And then Lance touches it and they light up like a Christmas glowing a sapphire blue. "Whoa!"

"They've never done that before."

"Ground!" Its too late - the tunnel collapses beneath them, sending them skidding down like a waterslide. They fell into a shallow pool - screaming - and Vanna flopped on the ground, waiting for her breath to come back. "C-C-Count off!"

Pidge and Hunk are little more shaky but everyone was fine and miraculously no one had not broken any bones - there's a mechanical... cat thing behind a force field, staring at them.

"Holy stars..."

Over a year ago Vanna and the Kereberos team worked with their crew - charting the course, preparing the ship, seeing to their health and their knowledge. Vanna especially spent many night with Shiro discussing the path and various countermeasures, getting distracted by watching the stars. And then they swallowed him up and Matt and Sam and the Garrison - some people - lied.

The Garrison had too much direction over things. They should focus on schooling the students not - not managing pilots and things. But there were risks in charting unknown territory and so Vanna had stayed - in her own territory so well-defined. Until a star fell, not a star at all and they followed strange energy and old carvings to this.

A mighty machine shaped in the form of a mighty lion. Or a panther. Something cat-shaped. Wrapped in force field of blue ethereal light, beneath the desert in a silent, forgotten cave. They were as ants beneath its paws, craning their necks to see the criss-crossing hexagon patterns and the lioness - sounds better than cat thing and it certainly did not have a mane - regally before them.

"... Voltron?" Pidge posited.

"Must be." Voltron - the weapon Shiro says the aliens were looking for. The Galra.

"This is the source of all the crazy energy out here..." Keith mused. "Vanna, you watched the skies right? Anything weird?"

"Loads of things. I was cataloging it. I pretended I didn't notice Pidge combing through my files."

The girl spluttered. "I thought you weren't helping!"

"You'd think I'd let just anyone poke in my files?"

Shiro chuckled, rubbing his nose as if remembering past injuries. "She doesn't."

"Okay, okay - so there's... alien presence in our skies?!" Hunk squeaked as they approached the force field, trailing after Keith and Lance.

"No." Vanna said. "The only extraterrestrial object I detected was Shiro's craft. ... Around Earth...."

"Does anyone feel like the eyes are following them?" Lance wondered. Shiro and Vanna exchanged looks; she shrugged.

"No."

"The eyes are totally following me."

Keith had approached the field, musing on ways to get past the field.

"We could knock," Lance suggested - and did just that. The entire barrier pulsed - flashed blue.

"That's not very secure - " Vanna was musing and the lion's eyes glowed with sentience. The circular barrier vanished in a whose, heretofore unseen carvings glowing beneath its paws. The cavern swallowed up their gasps.

And in their mind's eyes colors - purple, red, green, blue and yellow. A whole galaxy of stars. A mighty warrior wielding a blazing sword. A white structure under a cloudless sky. And them.

"Woah..."

Vanna flailed for Shiro's sleeve and ended up with his pinky because his clothes _were painted on_ , didn't Keith haven't anything bigger for this man? "That - Shiro did you - "

He nods numbly.

"Voltron is a robot!" Hunk shouted. "A huge awesome robot!"

"A mecha basically," Vanna deadpans, recalling other similar things on Earth, in the past. "We should -

The Lion moves. 

Vanna almost runs into Shiro in her haste; Pidge and Hunk yelp in fear but the lion simply lowered its head opening its mouth and reveals a gangplank.

Lance is the first one onboard.

"It's safe," Keith says to Pidge and hunk who are still cowering. "Come on!"

=^.^=

The lion is a SHIP. It had an interior and everything; complete with a couple cabins and a corridor. At Vanna's hissed order, Lance maneuvers the Blue Lion into the open air where she and Keith retrieved their speeders and into the hold.

And then the Lion launches into the air before they could do more than secure the bikes. "Nononono!"

"LANCE!" Keith tilts backwards. Vanna flails madly for something and Keith grunts as she accidentally stumbled into him. He wrapped an arm around her, grabbing a speeder hostler before they're flung against a cabin wall again.

"LANCE, YOU MORON!"

Pidge and Hunk's own panicked screams echo through the ship intercoms.

"MENDOZA!"

"Its not me! The Lion's really excited."

"Tell her to - " Another violent thrash almost dislodge their hold; Keith groaned.

"You - are - the worst - pilot - ever!"

"Its not me! She's on autopilot!"

"Let us out of this deathtrap!" 

Mercifully the lion drifted into a patient cruise and Keith and Vanna made their way back to the bridge on shaky legs. "I should strangle you." Keith muttered.

"You two okay?" Shiro asked; he seems to be only unfazed, though he is gripping the chair.

"A little bruised."

"Wait, Lance. This is the stratosphere." Vanna said and felt no shame using Shiro was a leaning post, like old times.

"Yeah uh... she says there's an alien ship. I think we're supposed to stop it."

What? Vanna shot a look at Shiro who looked grim.

'What is the lion saying?" Pidge demanded. "Exactly."

"It's not like its words! but ideas, feeding into my brain." Lance explained.

"Well," said Hunk still panicky; Vanna shoved a bag into his hand hoping he'd use it in the likely event he barfed. " if this thing is the weapon they're coming for, why don't we just, like—I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone. Sorry, Lion, nothing personal."

Vanna was not the only one who stared at him. "In what universe does giving the enemy the _weapon_ make them go away?"

Shiro seconded that. "You don't understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead."

Hunk froze; everyone kept staring. "Oh... never mind then."

"Uh..." said Keith and their attention was turned to... the greater cosmos. A view unobstructed by the sun, sprawled before them in all its empyreal majesty. Too bad the view was marred by an imposing, sharp warcruiser that just warped into their space.

"Holy crow! Is that real an alien ship?!"

It was similar in construction to the pod... "Shiro is that..."

"It is." his voice quavered and Vanna gripped his free hand, his flesh one tight. He took a breath. "They found me. The Galra."

And of course they opened fire, purple lasers cutting through the vacuum of space

"We have to get out of here!" Pidge snapped.

"I know, I know!" The next few minutes consists of Lance swinging the ship around and dodging purple lasers. There was no holds and she was short so she hung to Keith and Shiro and hope they would stand up straight.

"Try to wreck the enemy ship!"

"Of course!" A few laser bursts and a rack of claws across the hull, Lance deemed it wise to leave. "Now I think its time to get these guys away from our planet."

"Well, its working. They're following us."

"They're gaining!" Pidge panicked.

"They're just..."

"Chasing," Lance finished shiro's thought. Everyone was peering at the screens though Vanna considered it a miracle they could understand them.

"Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?" Hunk protested. "I am not on board with this new direction, guys!"

Vanna hummed. "i prefer them to follow so we can escape than shoot at us."

Hunk paled. "Uh, yes, that's uh - that seems better. yup. Escape."

"Where are we?" Keith demanded.

"Shiro, look!" Vanna pointed. "Is that - "

"Kereberos. How - the edge of the Solar System?"

"It should have taken us months to get out here!" Pidge said. "It's been  _minutes!_ if not seconds."

The monitors were beeping; and then a wide blue portal massive in size appeared-just materialized. "What in the name of - ?!"

"What is that?!" Hunk yelped.

"This may seem crazy but I think the lion wants to go through there."

"I am not a fan of stepping through swirling vortexes..." Vanna muttered; Hunk nodded vehemently.

"What's beyond it?" Pidge asked.

For the first time, Lance seemed uncertain. "I... don't know. Shiro. Vanna? You're senior officers. What should we do?"

Vanna froze, momentarily, her eyes darting to Shiro. "Have any experience with wormholes?"

"No." he admitted, frowning as the sensors beeped warningly of the approaching ship. "But the lion seems to know more than we do, what this all is. We should trust it, I say." He looked at them, at Vanna, an old teammate, Keith, his brother, his cadet, his friend. Hunk and Lance - new to him but vaguely familiar, brave despite themselves. and Pidge. who looked familiar and oh so intelligent. "But we're a team now. We should decide together."

Vanna looked doubtful. "I doubt we have much of a choice now," she said too low for anyone else to catch and wasn't the only one who nodded.

"All right, guess we're all ditching class tomorrow."

And together - huddled in a blue lion far away from home - they vanish into a vortex of stars.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a one-shot and seeing as I'm not really onboard with these later seasons (I'm rarely on board with later seasons of anything its a sad trend) I don't overly anticipate more of this. If so, it'll probably in a separate entry. But hope you enjoyed this brief foray into VLD writing.


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